A wide variety of hand grip tools are known in the industry. Many of these tools are designed to do a specific operation while others are designed to do many operations through the use of changeable mating die halves. Such hand tools are generally either double action hand tools (DAHT) which have dies that close in an arc-like path or straight action hand tools (SAHT) which have straight line die movement.
The majority of recent hand tools are of the multiple stroke hand tool type. These hand tools provide greater mechanical advantage than the previous single stroke hand tools. The mechanical advantage is provided through the use of a ratchet member driven by the movement of the handles as they are displaced toward each other. This mechanical advantage allows the handle of the hand tool to be positioned such that maximum grip strength of the operator corresponds with the maximum input force required for operation.
However, a problem with the above-mentioned multiple stroke hand tools is that no easy, convenient means is provided to allow the dies to be moved quickly and automatically into position adjacent the wire, prior to the operation being performed. Positioning the dies adjacent to the wire is important if the dies are to maintain the wire in the proper position as the operation occurs. The hand tools provided essentially two options of moving the dies into the proper position adjacent the wire. First, the handles of the ratchet hand tool must be engaged the proper number of times, in order to insure that the dies are adjacent to the wire before the operation is begun. The second manner of moving the dies into the required adjacent position is to provide a lever which can be operated by the operator. However, this requires that the operator use two hands, or that the operation use one hand to perform many operations.
The problem is that either option takes time and operator skill to perform. If either option is done improperly, a nonacceptable crimp, etc. will be performed. increasing the time or complexity of the operator procedure will only allow for more human error to cause more wasted material. Therefore, the present invention is directed to an automatic fast take-up which uses minimal operator input to position the dies in the proper position adjacent the wire, etc.